25 June, 2012

Squidge Attack

Everyone knows that the history
of our planet changed forever some time after the Beijing Olympic Games. The
world's coasts and seas filled up with a very dangerous and polluting species
of creature, which looked like a squid, but was called a "Squidge".

The squidges were everywhere, and
impossible to catch. But the worst aspect of it was that they were filling up
the seas with oil, tins, paper, and all kinds of rubbish. It was a terrible
situation; the whole planet was quickly contaminated, and advanced
investigation teams and hunting expeditions were set up to try to deal with
this new plague. But no one could even get close to catching a squidge.

Finally, the first person to
manage it was a boy called Caesar Tiddler. Caesar lived in a small fishing
village, and when he held up his squidge at a press conference, he became the
most famous boy in the world. That small fishing village was overrun by
scientists and government investigators, who came from all over the planet to
study the species. Everything was prepared for a post mortem to be done on the
squidge, an operation that would be watched on live television around the
world.

So imagine the amazement when, on
cutting the squidge open, a tiny space ship the size of a shoe was found
inside, and inside that space ship were some Martians. Now, these Martians
turned out to be quite charming, amusing, and clever little chaps. Before long,
they were busy talking to governments, who were all very angry at the way the
Martians had been messing up the planet. The governments expected some kind of
explanation for the Martians having behaved in such an uncivilised fashion...

-"We came from a planet that
was going to be destroyed,"

the Martians began to explain.

-"We liked the Earth so much
that we spent many days spying on how you human beings behave. We thought that
would help us to blend in if we came here, and it would help us all get along
happily together. That's why, after seeing you dump tins, paper, and oil, we
invented some expensive machines to do just that. We hid them inside the
disguise of a squid, and we tried to live happily there, in peace. Are you all
happy? Can we stay here? Finallllyyyyy?"

The Martian Squidge-men waited
for an answer. But no one uttered a word.

Everyone, including the billions
watching on TV, were red with embarrassment, remembering the last time they had
thrown away a piece of paper, or their car had leaked some oil on the road.

And all of us who saw it, we
still remember how a few unsuspecting little Martians made us realise how
little we care for our planet.

To care for the natural world we
need to act responsibly in our everyday actions, no matter how small.